PRESS RELEASE

In an effort to reach an even greater number of health care professionals, patients, educators and citizens, Patients Out of Time announces that George McMahan, one of the eight patients in the United States who receives Cannabis/marijuana from the US government is available for personal appearances.

Over the past several years George has experienced a noticeable improvement in his overall health and his ability to travel.  He is by no means cured of the rare nail-patella syndrome that has affected him since birth but the symptoms, which include constant pain, have become bearable from his daily administration of natural marijuana grown for him on the US government's Cannabis farm in Mississippi.  George is currently finishing a speaking tour throughout Texas.  In four-day increments he spoke before numerous professional groups and civic organizations, called on several members of the Texas Senate, and was featured on radio talk shows.  George is very specific about his goal: "As long as my government refuses to provide Cannabis as a medicine to my daughter and granddaughter who have inherited this dreadful disease from me I will never stop speaking to the injustice and callousness of such a policy."   George McMahan has the courage and ability as a legal marijuana patient to speak out openly about his marijuana use as few other people can do without the threat of serious legal consequences.  This may be an opportunity for your organization to hear the truth about therapeutic Cannabis.  Contact Patients Out of Time for more information.

Patients Out of Time is also pleased to add two more groups to it's expanding list of local and national organizations that have made the reinstitution of medical marijuana into the National Pharmacopoeia a part of their group's priorities.   In June of 1998, the Washington State Democratic Party at their Yakima, WA conference included the ending of the medical Cannabis prohibition and turning responsibility over to physicians to be a goal of their political agenda.  Also from the northwest, the Washington Hemp Education Network issued a resolution calling on therapeutic Cannabis to be immediately made available to patients under a medical doctor's care.  These additions to the list of groups supporting the end of therapeutic Cannabis prohibition are a demonstration of the publics faith in the professional health care community and highlight a lack of confidence that the present prohibition policies of the US government are in any way appropriate or of value.

Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, an expert addictions consultant to the University of Virginia's Health System and initiator of the American Public Health Association's positive resolution calling for access to therapeutic Cannabis calls the prohibition of medical Cannabis "a political decision based on lies, greed and bigotry; not on the needs of patients or the historical record of safety in clinical trials and application."  Ms. Mathre, a recognized expert in Cannabis administration and editor of the acclaimed Cannabis in Medical Practice: A Legal, Historical and Pharmacological Overview of the Therapeutic Use of Marijuana, also advises that, "the Code for Nurses requires them to participate in the profession's effort to protect the public from misinformation and misrepresentation and no therapeutic substance has been more misrepresented by our government than Cannabis.   The Nursing profession must lead the patient advocacy position concerning medical Cannabis."

Please share and distribute the accompanying list of organizations supporting the patients' right to therapeutic Cannabis.  For confirmation or copies of individual resolutions please contact Patients Out of Time.

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